World of Warcraft has been going strong since its release, but recently I've been reading threads stating that it's in decline. I have not noticed anything "declining" but I'm starting to get worried. If going F2P would bring down the quality of the game, I wouldn't want it to, and I'm also aware that WoW is still one of the best MMORPGs worldwide, and that's why those threads confused me.

I would like to get other people's opinions on the matter, and what you think should be done.

You could've just searched, there's 500 threads already asking for "opinions"... this last week.

They would lose a crap load of money going freeplay, i don't think they'll risk that. Unless however - they are deciding to add a new game, in which they'll most probably shift resources into the new game and still get a lot of traffic coming onto WoW to promote the new game. But that is a big look behind why they would possibly go freeplay.

$15 a month, x12 months = $180 a year
It's been out for over 8 years, so $180 x8 years = $1,440

And that's JUST for the monthly subscription. Add on to that all the costs of all the expansions, plus any kind of pets/mounts bought in the Blizz store, plus any character transfer or faction change, and yea it could be a couple thousand...